Posted on 12/25/2005 9:40:02 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
BOISE (AP) Idaho, boosted by an influx of new residents and one of the highest birth rates in the nation, is the third fastest-growing state.
Estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau today showed Idahos population grew by about 34,000 people, or 2.4 percent, between July 1, 2004 and July 1, 2005.
Our strong economy continues to attract people and investment into the state, Idaho Commerce and Labor Director Roger Madsen said in a statement.
But residents will likely still be able to find elbow room as the states population of slightly more than 1.4 million people ranks it as only the 39th most populous in the nation, while it ranks 14th in land area.
According to the Census, more than 61,000 people came to Idaho from other states, and an additional 14,500 came from other countries, easily outnumbering residents who moved away.
Idaho also had the sixth-highest birth rate and sixth-lowest death rate. The states 7,776 births per 100,000 residents offset the states 3,656 deaths per 100,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at spokesmanreview.com ...
If I really had an itch to open a business, I might look at Wyoming before committing any serious money here in Idaho. My only real reservation about places like Jackson Hole is the tourist nature of the economy and the high prices for real estate. Much the same problem as Sun Valley, Idaho.
Pocatello is located at a nice crossroad between I-15 and I-86. Good rail connectivity. A decent airport. There has to be some means of leveraging those resources. Even the network connectivity is pretty decent.
Well sure if you stay inside, a pool, or in a vehicle with good AC. Outside of staying indoors, I know of no way to stay cool in extreme heat, as opposed to outside in cold, at least one can layer up and stay warm. I personally hate both extreme cold and heat. LOL.
I just watched a business "folly" in Pocatello. The western outlet store next to Vicker's Western closed. It was remodeled into "Mundo Latino". Lots of money spent on a remodel. The proprietor obviously flunked marketing. The Spanish speaking population here is a subset of the 5% hispanic population. They are the low end of the income range. Why would you target a business at the smallest group with the least disposable income? The "going out of business" signs were posted just after Thanksgiving. They must have lasted 3 months from opening day to the decision to shutter the store.
Idaho has a lot of Mormons but I don't know the exact percentage.
It's interesting to hear about this kind of stuff on FR. I'm a 4th generation SE Idaho native, currently expat in CA. The rest of my family is still in either IF, Blackfoot, or Pocatello/Chubbuck.
This:
Or this:
Have yet to fail!
Poolside, optional :o)
I must say that any time you see a statistic that contains "fastest growing", it is usually a scare stat. "Fastest growing" is usually indicative of a small number becoming a slightly larger number that disproportionally affects a percentage comparison.
If a population of 1,000,000 gains 1,000, it is a .1% increase. If a nearby pop of 10,000 gains the same 1,000, it is a 10% increase and thus the "fastest growing", even though the growth is identical in real terms.
Alcohol and 114 degrees? Drink enough where your urine has a head on it, and you probably wont notice you've been broiled.
Oh no, no, no, never in the sun, and after around 6pm when it's not intense! (that's why I included the iced tea!).
I forgot to mention, add patio, with the ceiling fans and misters blowing.
There the temp is around 100ish, and dry. :)
Tossing reality out the window, AZ summers are nice, if all you had to do was sip a cold one, and wade around in a shaded pool all day.
Nope, can't beat it.
Actually, I think some people can easily adapt, with the right attitude. But, I won't stand in the way of those who can't deal with the heat.
I-10 and I-17 traffic clears after 10am! ;o)
I spent a fair amount of research time in the June-August 2000 timeframe before putting Chubbuck on my short list. My wife and I drove from San Diego to the Pocatello area to see some of top candidates in real estate in person. Some that looked wonderful in the pictures had undesirable lots or street locations. Stuff that you can't discern from a real estate website.
The single oversight in my research was wind. The area is a little more windy than I like, but that is a small issue compared to all the other characteristics that I like much better.
The one thing I would change here is to refocus the local city councils on bringing white collar jobs to the area. It is so easy and the pay scales are much better. The old railroad town/union labor philsophy still permeates and hampers progress. The factory jobs with big union wages and benefits are not coming back. Restaurant and retail employees just barely make ends meet. My favorite FFL was a farmer for years, but that is often just a break even proposition too. Another ex-farmer is now an electrical engineer.
ISU is actively seeking a company that manufactures the radioactive "seeds" for cancer therapy. If successful, we could have 1,000 new jobs in the area. There is also an effort to establish a medical school at ISU to complement the pharmacy school. If either of those efforts succeeds, there will be plenty of demand for the new houses near Century High School on the south end of town.
Is your California job "portable" enough to perform in SE Idaho? My company in San Diego offered me a fairly small office, poor lighting, long commutes, a slow computer and network and hot stale air. All the amenities. None of that helped me do my job. I have 5x as much work space in my home now, I own all the computers...as fast as you can buy, no commute, fast network, fresh mountain air. All the failed "amenities" of working in the company office are gone. I now charge a rate that reflects only my labor. The loading for the lousy office facilities is gone. That improves my ability to compete on a contract against another person who resides in a company office. For those tasks that are "classified", I still have to travel to the designated facility. The only real difference is that the travel starts in Idaho instead of California.
Sadly, you are right. However in the San Fernando Valley, and other parts of (inland) CA, temps are well into the 100's in the summer. It's not all that different, depending on where in L.A. (or other parts of CA) one is from.
But Phoenix (or most of AZ, for that matter) is a whole different animal than it was, even 10 years ago. At least here, AZ (and ID, since this is the topic of this thread) still respect your Second Amendment rights. We don't have every little ordinance infringing on our rights every day, but it is rapidly changing.
Going back to the topic (Idaho), I can see the changes going on up there, already in just the two and a half years my sister has lived (CDL area). Property is rising, traffic is accumulating in the small towns (if such a thing can be imagined, but it's happening), houses are popping up everywhere.
In 1990, it was said in Phoenix "We're not going to turn our city into 'another L.A.' ", but that's precisely what happened. We now have a water shortage, in which we never had in the past.
I certainly hope Idaho won't turn into a huge metropolitan growth. The fact that they don't' have much water, won't stop the mentality of over development...for better or for worse.
Woo Hoo, We're #3! :)
Would that sign also have to be translated into Spanish as well? :(
I couln't agree more with the comments regarding Phoenix and ID.
I was in Vegas a few months ago. The changes there were amazing!
I was just reading this about Nevada.
*********************************************************** http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/commentary/2005/dec/25/519871541.html
Columnist Hal Rothman:
Las Vegas Valley will inevitably become a predominantly Spanish-speaking community
Feliz Navidad. If you don't know what that means, you had better find out.
The most significant demographic change in Las Vegas in the past 15 years is neither the emergence of a retirement community nor the growth of a transplanted upper-middle-class. It is, wholeheartedly and without a doubt, the remarkable growth of the Spanish-surnamed population.
No group of people has become more visible in recent years in Las Vegas than Latinos. They have come from everywhere, from East Los Angeles and now South Central, increasingly Latino instead of African American.
They leave Mexico in droves, fleeing the poverty of the cities and oppression of the highlands. Middle-class people from Nicaragua, Salvador, Guatemala and Panama come, fleeing the anarchic and often lethal dangers of life in societies with private armies and rampant poverty, where riding in limousines surrounded by armed escorts makes you a target. Filipinos arrive in an ever-growing stream. We have even imported the show that Fidel Castro does not want you to see.
The Latino population of Clark County jumped from 85,000 in 1990 to more than 375,000 in 2004, an increase that put the Latino presence well over 20 percent of the county.
There was an estimate recently in the Idaho Statesman that the population of the Boise area (currently 400K) will be 1M by 2025.
To both of your posts and figures!!
Unfortunately, no. Maybe in a related field, later.
We did get back to visit this last summer, and to spend some time up at Island Park and Yellowstone. Got to give my kids a taste of what my boyhood summers were like. I don't think they had any concept of what a "forest" really was. I had a really good teaching opportunity to correct some of the eco-myths about the evil logging industry.
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